Interoperability & Homeland Security

Anyone up for a Texas size discussion of communication? We've been through the 1st major national incident right here in TX under the auspices of "Homeland Security". What was your experience in communicating with all the inter-agency involvement on the ground?

Do you have the ability to talk to State & Federal agencies who come in to assist you in the "big event" in your area?

we don't have much interoperability with anyone outside our county. we have one of the state fire mutual aid vhf channels we use but beyond that there isn't much way we could communicate with anyone from not around here.